1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an art for binding a flat wiring harness formed by arranging covered electric wires in the same plane and bonding them, and also an art for bending the wire harness in the same plane.
2. Description of the prior art
As for the covered wires for use in wirings in such vehicles as motor cars, single or solid wires have so far been used since it is required to make them flexible so that they can be bent at any desired position. However, the number of electric wires required to be used has increased markedly with the increase in the kinds of electric/electronic apparatuses. In case wiring of solid or single wires is made, the flexibility of the wires makes it impossible for them to maintain rectilinearity after the completion of the wiring, thus causing a tendency for the wires themselves being mixed together and located in a disorderly manner. As a result, there has so far been a problem that the wiring operation becomes complicated so that incorrect wiring tends to occur and it is difficult to make correction of it.
To solve this problem, a flat wiring harness formed by arranging a desired number of covered wires in the same plane and bonding them by any suitable means such as adhesive bonding, etc. in an easily separable manner has come to be used of late. By binding the covered wires in such a fashion, it becomes possible to increase the rigidity of the wires thereby making it easy for them to maintain their rectilinearity after the completion of wire distribution and also preventing them from being disarranged due to the vibration of the vehicle when running. Further, if such a flat wiring harness is separated into individual single wires as occasion demands, then the individual wires can restore its original flexibility so that each of them can be bent freely and wired easily. Thus, this approach makes it easy to carry out the wiring operation, but also is effective to prevent the occurrence of incorrect wiring.
However, when mounting such a flat wiring harness on the vehicle body, it is impossible to pass the wiring harness through a small panel hole or a narrow space as it is. Therefore, it is necessary to round the flat wiring harness or divide it into several parts to pass it through such a narrow space, so that the wiring operation becomes troublesome and requires much labor.
The present invention has been made with a view to overcoming the above-mentioned disadvantages in the prior art, and has for its first object to provide a flat wiring harness which can be passed through a narrow space or a small panel hole easily.
Further, a bent configuration suitable for bending such a flat wiring harness in the same plane as that in which covered wires are arranged is proposed and disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. SHO 51-104575. According to this proposal, the arrangement is made such that when the flat wiring harness is bent, the slackening portion of each of the covered wires resulting from the difference in arc length between the inner and outer peripheries thereof at its bend is located inside the bend.
However, in case the slackening portion of each of the covered wires is located inside its bend, and a unit or an equipment is located in the bend, one of the spacings between the flat wiring harness and the two sides of the unit must be larger than the other. As a result, it becomes difficult to fixedly secure the bend of the flat wiring harness to the unit, and even when it is possible, its fixing to the unit becomes unstable. In addition thereto, the distance between the outermost side of the flat wiring harness and the unit at the bend will increase thus bringing about the need for provision of a correspondingly large space outside such a unit or an equipment.
The present invention has been made in view of the abovementioned circumstances, and has for its second object to provide a flat wiring harness which enables the distance between the flat wiring harness and such a unit even at a bend of the flat wiring harness to be reduced, and also the space outside the unit to be reduced correspondingly.